Five or six kids looked as if they understood.
“This is the correct way.” She drew a deep breath and sang the song’s first two lines a cappella.When the kids clapped and shouted, she took an exaggerated bow, and the teens laughed.
“Got it?” she asked.
Another lackluster response.
“Show them what it sounds like through the nose,” Caleb called down, still standing on the podium.
Good idea. “Listen for the difference.”
Ariel hammed it up pretty good, the terrible sound making the teens laugh.
They sang through the song a few more times. The sopranos, singing melody, held their own. Ariel worked with the altos, helping them with the harmony line she sang on the recording. The boys’ section, made up mostly of tenors, struggled with their parts until Caleb demonstrated. When they’d adjusted dynamics and tightened harmony, the teen choir sounded better than she’d hoped. It had to be one of the best ideas Caleb ever had.
Still, she wished for a moment to talk with him, to try to discover the reason he’d changed during their date.
The next morning, Ariel dropped a slice of bread into the toaster as Caleb strode up to the breakfast bar. “Can you come in my office?”
She hadn’t known if he’d take the July Fourth holiday off or work. Regardless, from the tone of his voice and his dour expression, something must have gone terribly wrong.
Ariel followed him inside, and he pulled out the chair opposite his at the desk. “Better sit down. Blake just called me with disturbing news.”
“What’s going on?” She sat down hard on the wooden chair and braced herself.
“Ariel, I’d do just about anything if I didn’t have to show this to you. But you’ll see it anyway, so I wanted you with me when you did.”
Josie appeared in the doorway, her brows drawn together and her voice low. “Ariel, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to talk. Right away.”
“Is it about this?” Caleb asked, gesturing toward the monitor screen.
“You saw it too?” Josie stepped behind Caleb and peered at the screen.
“You two are scaring me.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Caleb spun the monitor around so Ariel could see the screen. “But this is…Just watch.”
There she saw Blake’s social media account and a post with Ariel’s name on it.
With a click of his mouse, Caleb started the video.
She then heard her own voice singing the first two lines of “The Long Way” in an annoyingly nasal tone. Caught sight of the caption.
“Ariel Sullivan’s True Voice without Auto-Tune.”
Oh no, no…“Caleb, who would do this? It doesn’t even make sense. Auto-Tune can’t correct nasal singing.”
“I don’t know who made the original post.”
“This isn’t the original?”
He hesitated. “It’s viral.”
Ariel reached for the mouse and then clicked through the captions of a dozen more videos.
Ariel Drags Miss Dahlia Down.
The Hidden Secret of Ariel Sullivan’s True Voice.
